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  1. The Schubert-Mahler transcription brings up an interesting point; some string-transcriptions just don’t record well (The first LP of the Schubert-Mahler-–on, if memory serves, EMI-–was one); worse, some transcriptions don’t have solo passages (the recent Telarc of Dvorak’s “American” quartet was a soggy example). <><> One of the few with any real punch ended up on a few ‘Fanfare’ Magazine critics’ Ten Best list: quartets by Szymanowski, Haas, and Janacek played on Chandos 10016, by the ‘Australian Chamber Orchestra.’ The reason it ‘works’ is the large number of sudden, schizophrenic in-and-out passages for solo violin, viola, and ‘cello.<><>I hope the Enescu really used the solo fiddle to play the hell out of the music: I have an old Bruno LP with gypsy music recorded by a Hungarian string orchestra in the late 30’s (it’s unsettling to think what probably happened to these players in a few years’ time); it features a solo violin –and a cimbalon– jumping through its texture with a startling vitality.

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